Molecular farming

ABSTRACT

Novel constructs are provided for expression of physiologically active mammalian proteins in plant cells, either in culture or under cultivation. The constructs provide a promoter functional in a plant host, a structural gene coding for mammalian protein and a terminator functional in a plant host. The construct is introduced into a plant cell to become integrated into the plant genome for expression in the plant cells or plants. The plant cells may be harvested and the mammalian protein isolated in physiologically active form.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/855,260,filed May 13, 1997, now abandoned, which is a continuation ofapplication Ser. No. 08/463,182, filed Jun. 5, 1995, which issued on May13, 1997, as U.S. Pat. No. 5,629,175, which is a continuation ofapplication Ser. No. 08/164,346, filed Dec. 8, 1993, which issued onAug. 27, 1996 as U.S. Pat. No. 5,550,038, which is a continuation ofapplication Ser. No. 07/507,380, filed Apr. 9, 1990, now abandoned,which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 06/760,236, filed onJul. 29, 1985, which issued on Sep. 11, 1990 as U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,282.

BACKGROUND OF THE,INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

An extensive literature has been developed demonstrating the ability toproduce polypeptide sequences in a wide variety of cellular hosts.Numerous genes have been isolated from mammals and viruses, joined totranscriptional and translational initiation and termination regulatorysignals from a source other than the structural gene and introduced intohosts in which the regulatory signals are functional. Frequently, thepeptide of interest is prepared to be used for a physiological purpose.In many situations, physiological activity requires not only having thecorrect or substantially correct amino acid sequence, but the peptidemust fold properly including proper disulfide linkage formation and mayrequire further processing, such as acetylation, glycosylation ormethylation.

For economic production, one would wish to use unicellularmicroorganisms, which could be grown in large fermentation tanks, do nothave fastidious nutrient requirements and are relatively economical tomaintain. Bacteria, such as E. coli, B. subtilis, or the like, fungi,such as yeast, Candida, filamentous fungi, or the like, offer economicopportunities to produce a wide variety of peptides. However, because ofthe substantial difference in the nature of the unicellularmicroorganisms and mammalian cells, the folding and processing in amammalian cell appears to be substantially different from these lowerorder organisms. Therefore, the products which are obtained from theunicellular microorganisms may not have been properly processed orfolded so as to realize a substantial proportion or all of thephysiological activity of the naturally occurring peptide obtained froma native host.

There therefore remains substantial interest in providing alternativeeconomic systems for producing peptides, where high yields may beobtained and significantly, the products may be produced in a formproviding for a high degree of physiological activity common to thewild-type peptide having the same or substantially the same amino acidsequence.

2. Brief Description of the Relevant Literature

References concerned with expression of various interferons includeGoeddel et al., Nucleic Acids Res. (1980) 8:4057-4074; Goeddel, Nature(1980) 287:411-415; Yelverton et al., Nucleic Acids Res. (1981)9:731-741; Gray et al., Nature (1982) 295:503-508; Devos et al., NucleicAcids Res. (1982) 10:2487-2501; Grey and Goeddel, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.USA (1983) 80:5842-5846; Scahill et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA(1983) 80:4654-4658. See also, Horsch et al., Science (1985)227:1229-1231.

Wide host range cloning vectors are described by Knauf and Nester,Plasmid (1982) 8:45-54. The nucleotide sequence of the T-DNA region isdescribed by Barker et al., Plant Molecular Biology (1983). 2:335-350.See also, EPA 0 116 718 and PCT WO84/02913.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Efficient production of physiologically active mammalian proteins isprovided by introducing functional constructs containing the mammalianstructural gene into a plant cell. The construct is able to express thedesired peptide in an isolatable form. The plant cells may be grown inculture or cultivated in an appropriate nutrient medium or soil and themammalian protein harvested. Particularly, T-DNA transformation may beemployed for integration of the construct into the plant genome underconditions where the cells can be used to produce plants.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

Novel DNA sequences are provided comprising constructs functional inplant cells for the expression of physiologically active mammalianpeptides. The constructs provide for functional transcriptional andtranslational initiation and termination regulatory signals which withthe construct integrated into the plant genome, provide for efficientexpression of the structural gene. Depending upon whether the cells aregrown in culture or cultivated in soil or other medium, these cells orplants may be harvested, and the desired product extracted and purifiedin accordance with conventional techniques.

The construct for introduction into the plant will be considered first.While the construct may be either DNA or RNA, for the most part, theconstruct will be DNA even though the construct may be ultimatelyintroduced into the plant cell as RNA, such as a virus. One significantelement of the construct will be the transcriptional cassette involvingthe transcriptional initiation region, which may be divided into aregulatory domain and the usually proximal RNA polymerase bindingdomain, the structural gene coding for the mammalian peptide ofinterest, and a terminator region which provides for termination oftranscription and translation. Another significant element is theregulation of expression at a particular stage of differentiation, in aparticular plant part, e.g., roots, leaves, stalk, or the like. In manysituations a polypeptide leader signal will be desirable which directsthe product to a particular organelle. This will be of substantialsignificance where the organelle may be involved in the properprocessing of the peptide.

A wide variety of transcriptional initiation regions may be employed,which are inducible, e.g., tissue specific, or constitutive. Thetranscriptional initiation regions may come from the tumor-inducingplasmids of Agrobacterium, particularly the genes associated with T-DNA,or from viruses, or plants. Among the T-DNA transcription initiationregions which may find use include those regions associated withoctopine synthase, nopaline synthase, mannopine synthase, transcript 7,and the like. Among viral transcription initiation regions are includedthe caulimovirus full length promoter and the region VI promoter. Amongplant transcription initiation regions are the ribulose-1,5-bisphosphatecarboxylase small subunit region, which is light inducible, or the napinor other seed protein region, for formation in seed.

The transcription initiation regions may be isolated from their naturalsites in a host or may be sequenced and synthesized so as to have thesame or substantially the same sequence as the wild-type region. Whereinducible regulation is desired, domains may be obtained from differentsources, so that a regulatory domain may be obtained from one source andjoined to an RNA polymerase binding domain from a different source. Inthis manner, one may provide for the use of strong RNA polymerasebinding domain associated with one structural gene, while having aregulatory domain associated with a different structural gene. Thesehybrid regulatory regions may find particular use where one wishes toinduce the production of the desired gene at a particular phase in thegrowth of the plant or to have the product located in a particular plantpart, such as seed, leaves, or the like. Any transcriptional terminationregulatory region may be used which is functional in plants, e.g.,prokaryotic or eukaryotic, from T-DNA, plants, viruses or mammals.

The structural gene may be any mammalian gene of interest, whichincludes mammalian viral pathogen genes. A wide variety of genes havebeen isolated and shown to be capable of production in unicellularmicro-organisms, to various degrees of biological activity andefficiencies, and in mammalian cells, with the ever present concern thatthe mammalian cells are transformed cells, so that any product must becarefully purified to ensure the complete absence of any nucleic acidcontaminant. Structural genes of interest include α-, β- andγ-interferons, immunoglobulins, with the structural genes coding for thelight and heavy chains and desirably assembly occurring in the plantcell, lympho-kines, such as interleukins 1, 2 and 3, growth factors,including insulin-like growth factor, epidermal growth factor, plateletderived growth factor, transforming growth factor-α, -β, etc., growthhormone, insulin, collagen plasminogen activator, blood factors, such asfactors I to XII, histocompatibility antigens, enzymes, or othermammalian proteins, particularly human proteins.

Among the antigens associated with viral pathogens, include the core andenvelope proteins of leukemia and lymphotropic retroviruses, such asHTLV-I, -II and -III, feline leukemia virus, etc., surface antigens ofherpes simplex virus, hepatitis B virus, adenovirus, and the like.

Peptides of interest other than those indicated above will be peptideswhich may be administered physiologically, where growth in plantsdiminishes the probability of contaminants causing an adverse responseupon administration to a mammalian host.

Plants may also find use in preparing other proteins than to beadministered to a host, where the mammalian protein, such as an enzyme,may require folding and/or processing that is unavailable in unicellularmicroorganisms. Not only may plants be used to prepare the maturepeptide, but in many instances it may be desirable to prepare theprecursor, which may require cleavage and assembly, either endogenous orexogenous to the plant. Peptides dan be prepared having a naturallyoccurring transit or leader peptide or a transit or leader peptide froma plant peptide. The transit peptide will serve to subject the entirepeptide product to the processing and maturing of the peptide. Suchprocessing may include specific peptide cleavage, e.g., removal of thetransit peptide, glycosylation at glycosylation sites, folding withappropriate formation of disulfide linkages.

Any convenient terminator may be employed which provides for efficienttermination in conjunction with a particular transcriptional initiationregion. The terminator may be the terminator region normally associatedwith the transcriptional initiation region or associated with adifferent transcriptional initiation region, so long as the region isfunctional in plants.

In order to select for plant cells that have successfully integrated theconstruct, the expression construct or cassette will usually be joinedto a marker. The marker will allow for either screening or selection,usually selection. A number of different antibiotic resistance genes areknown that can find use in plants to serve as markers. These genesinclude enzymes providing resistance to kanamycin, chloramphenicol,G418, gentamycin, and the like. These genes will have transcriptionaland translational initiation and termination regulatory regions that maybe the same or different from the regions employed for the structuralgene of interest. Usually constitutive expression will be provided,rather than inducible expression.

In addition to the cassette and marker, depending upon the manner inwhich the DNA construct will be introduced into the plant cell, othersequences may be necessary. Where the Agrobacterium tumor-inducingsystem is to be employed, one or both of the T-DNA boundaries of a Ti-or Ri-plasmid will be present, particularly the right boundary region.Each boundary region will generally be of about 1 to 1.5 kbp.

The DNA construct of the cassette, marker and T-DNA may then be employedin a variety of ways. For integration into a Ti- or Ri-plasmid, theconstruct may be introduced into an appropriate Agrobacterium straincarrying the tumor-inducing plasmid, whereby the construct will becomeintegrated into the tumor-inducing plasmid and may then be transferredto plant cells. Alternatively, the construct may be joined to a broadspectrum replication system, such as a Pl incompatibility replicationsystem and transformed into an Agrobacterium containing an armed ordisarmed tumor-inducing plasmid. Integration will occur and transfer tothe plant cell of the construct along with other genes and markers. Whentransfer is with an armed tumor-inducing plasmid (Ti or Ri T-DNAcontaining plasmid) genes conferring tumor formation will betransferred, so that galls may form. With disarmed tumor plasmids(lacking-T-DNA) the tumor-causing genes cannot be transferred and gallformation is not encountered. A transposon may be employed containingthe construct and the gene coding for transposase, such as in the Ac-Dssystem. A viral system may be employed which provides for integrationinto the host genome.

Transfer of the DNA construct into the plant cell may be by infectionwith A. tumefaciens or A. rhizogenes, microinjection, liposome fusion,viral infection, or the like. The particular manner in which the DNA isintroduced into the plant cell for integration is not critical to thisinvention.

Usually, the construct will be joined to a prokaryotic replicationsystem, for example, a system functional in E. coli, so as to allow forcloning at the various stages of preparation of the construct. A widevariety of replication systems are available, both plasmid and phage,such as ColE1, λ, etc.

Plant cells which are employed may be either monocots or dicots and willbe chosen in accordance with the manner in which the desired gene is tobe produced and harvested. Plants which may find use include tobacco,sunflower, corn, sugar cane, soybean, tomato, alfalfa, mustard, sugarbeet, rapeseed, etc. The product may be found in plant parts such asseed, leaves, fruit, roots, stalks, tubers, or combinations thereof.Thus, the peptide of interest may be the sole purpose for growing theplant or be an additional product.

The construct will be prepared in conventional ways. DNA sequences maybe detected by employing probes, which may be designed based on knownamino acid sequences or prior isolation of all or fragments of mRNA orchromosomal DNA. The sequences may be restriction mapped or sequencedand the entire gene obtained by various techniques, such as walking,using a plurality of primers, or the like. Once the sequence has beenisolated, it may be ligated to other sequences, either directly orthrough linkers, where the linkers may provide no or portions of codingsequences. Various strategies may be devised based on availablerestriction sites, the absence of restriction sites, the ability tointroduce restriction sites, the availability of particular fragments,the presence of sequences which require excision, and the like. Theparticular strategy will be dependent upon the gene which is employed,the particular regulatory systems, the availability of vectors havingone or more of the desired sequences, as well as other practicalconsiderations.

The manner in which the construct is introduced into plants may bevaried widely. This has already been indicated by virtue of thedifferent sequences which may be included in the construct. Ofparticular interest is the presence of T-DNA for integration inconjunction with the vir genes of the Ti-plasmid which may be present ona plasmid other than the plasmid containing the foreign gene. Thus, thenecessary genetic capability for integration into the plant cell can beprovided, in conjunction with infection with Agrobacterium orintroduction of the DNA by other means. Descriptions of introduction ofDNA into plants may be found in Pedersen et al., Plant Cell Reports(1983) 2:201-204; Hooykaas-Van Slogteren et al., Nature (1984)311:763-764; de Cleene and de Ley,. The Botanical Review (1976)42:389-466, and references cited therein, are incorporated herein byreference.

The transformed plant cells will then be grown in appropriate nutrientmedium to provide for selected calli, where plant cells or protoplastshave been modified. Once the calli has formed, the medium may then bechanged to encourage root and shoot formation and the resulting shootstransferred to appropriate growth medium for growth of plants. When theplants have been grown to the desired stage, the plants or plant parts,e.g., seeds, fruit or the like, may be harvested, and the desiredproduct isolated in accordance with conventional ways. Thereafter, thegene may be regenerated from seeds, so that the process of regenerationfrom calli need not be repeated. The plant may be ground and extractedwith appropriate solvents, chromatographed, crystallized, solventextracted, etc. The crude product may then be purified in accordancewith the nature of the product.

In some instances it may be neither necessary nor desirable to extractand isolate the mammalian protein product from the plant. Where theproduct can have a physiological effect on ingestion, it may besufficient that the product be retained with the plant. This will betrue where the plant part is edible, such as fodder which could includenutritional qualities, such as bovine growth hormone, seed, nuts, fruit,and vegetables, which could include proteins involved in the regulationof digestion, or the like.

The following examples are offered by way of illustration and not by wayof limitation.

EXPERIMENTAL

The HindIII-SmaI fragment of Tn5 containing the entire structural genefor APHII (Jorgensen et al., Mol. Gen. (1979) 177:65) was cloned intoPUCB (Vieira and Messing, Gene (1982) 19:259), converting the fragmentinto a HindIII-EcoRI fragment, since there is an EcoRI site immediatelyadjacent to the SmaI site. The PstI-EcoRI fragment containing the3′-portion of the APHII gene was then combined with anEcoRI-BamHI-SalI-PstI linker into the EcoRI site of pUC7 (pCGN546W).Since this construct does not confer kanamycin resistance, kanamycinresistance was obtained by inserting the Bg1II-PstI fragment of theAPHII gene into the BamHI-PstI site (pcGN546X). This procedurereassembles the APHII gene, so that EcoRI sites flank the gene. An ATGcodon was upstream from and out of reading frame with the ATG initiationcodon of APHII. The undesired ATG was avoided by inserting a Sau3A-PstIfragment from the 5′-end of APHII, which fragment lacks the superfluousATG, into the BamHI-PstI site of pCGN546W to provide plasmid pCGN550.

The EcoRI fragment containing the APHII gene was then cloned into theunique EcoRI site of pCGN451, which contains an octopine synthasecassette for expression, to provide pCGN552.

pCGN451 includes an octopine cassette which contains about 1556 bp ofthe 5′ non-coding region fused via an EcoRI linker to the 3′ non-codingregion of the octopine synthase gene of pTiA6. The pTi coordinates are11,207 to 12,823 for the 3′ region and 13,643 to 15,208 for the 5′region as defined by Barker et al., Plant Mol. Biol. (1983) 2:325.

The 5′ fragment was obtained as follows. A small subcloned fragmentcontaining the 5′ end of the coding region, as a BamHI-EcoRI fragmentwas cloned in pBR322 as plasmid pCGN407. The BamHI-EcoRI fragment has anXmnI site in the coding region, while pBR322 has two XmnI sites. pCGN407was digested with XmnI, resected with Bal31 nuclease and EcoRI linkersadded to the fragments. After EcoRI and BamHI digestion, the fragmentswere size fractionated, the fractions cloned and sequenced. In one case,the entire coding region and 10 bp of the 5′ non-translated sequenceshad been removed leaving the 5′ non-transcribed region, the mRNA capsite and 16 bp of the 5′ non-translated region (to a BamHI site) intact.This small fragment was obtained by size fractionation on a 7%acrylamide gel and fragments approximately 130 bp long eluted. This sizefractionated DNA was ligated into M13mp9 and several clones sequencedand the sequence compared to the known sequence of the octopine synthasegene. The M13, construct was designated p14, which plasmid was digestedwith BamHI and EcoRI to provide the small fragment which was ligated toa XhoI to BamHI fragment containing upstream 5′ sequences from pTiA6(Garfinkel and Nester, J. Bacteriol. (1980) 144:732) and to an EcoRI toXhoI fragment containing the 3′ sequences. The resulting XhoI fragmentwas cloned into the XhoI site of a pUC8 derivative, designated pCGN426.This plasmid differs from pUC8 by having the sole EcoRI site filled inwith DNA polymerase I, and having lost the PstI and HindIII site bynuclease contamination of HincII restriction endonuclease, when a XhoIlinker was inserted into the unique HincII site of pUC8. The resultingplasmid pCGN451 has a single EcoRI site for the insertion of proteincoding sequences between the 5′ non-coding region (which contains 1,550bp of 5′ non-transcribed sequence including the right border of theT-DNA, the mRNA cap site and 16 bp of 5′ non-translated sequence) andthe 3′ region (which contains 267 bp of the coding region, the stopcodon, 196 bp of 3′ non-translated DNA, the polyA site and 1,153 bp of3′ non-transcribed sequence). pCGN451 also provides the right T-DNAborder.

The resulting plasmid pCGN451 having the ocs 5′ and the ocs 3′ in theproper orientation was digested with EcoRI and the EcORI fragment frompCGN551 containing the intact kanamycin resistance gene inserted intothe EcoRI site to provide pCGN 552 having the kanamycin resistance genein the proper orientation.

This ocs/KAN gene was used to provide a selectable marker for the transtype binary vector pCGN587.

The 5′ portion of the engineered octopine synthase promoter cassetteconsists of TiA6 DNA from the XhoI at bp 15208-13644 (Barker'snumbering), which also contains the T-DNA boundary sequence (border)implicated in T-DNA transfer. In the plasmid pCGN587 the ocs/KAN genefrom pCGN552 provides a selectable marker as well the right border. Theleft boundary region was recloned from the HindIII-EcoRI fragment as aKpnI-EcoRI fragment in pCGN565 to provide pCGN580. pCGN565 is a cloningvector based on pUC8-Cm, but containing pUC18 linkers. pCGN580 waslinearized with BamHI and used to replace the smaller Bg1II fragment ofpVCK102 (Knauf and Nester, Plasmid (1982) 8:45), creating pCGN585. Byreplacing the smaller SalI fragment of pCGN585 with the XhoI fragmentfrom pCGN552 containing the ocs/KAN gene, pCGN587 was obtained.

pCGN807 is derived from pBR322, contains the tetracycline resistancegene, has about 300 bp of a sequence including the trp promoter 5′ to a750 bp sequence including all of the murine γ-interferon structural cDNAand a 3′-untranslated region, with the gene described in Gray andGoeddel, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (1983) 80:5842-5846. The promoterand gene are an EcoRI fragment of about 834 bp. pCGN807 was digestedwith EcoRI and HpaI which fragment was inserted into pEMBL18+, which hadbeen digested with EcoRI and SmaI creating pCGN808. pEMBL18+ (Dente etal., Nucleic Acids Res. (1983) 11:1645) differs from the pEMBL plasmidsin having the pUC18 linker inserted into the β-galactosidase gene.pCGN808 was digested with EcoRI and BamHI to provide a 540 bp fragmentwhich was inserted into pCGN46 which had been digested with EcoRI andBamHI to provide for the murine γ-interferon cDNA gene to be in theproper orientation in relation to the mannopine synthase (mas) 5′transcription initiation region and the ocs 3′ transcription terminationregion (pCGN809).

An approximately 5.5 kbp EcoRI fragment (Eco13 or EcoC) carrying aportion of the T-R DNA (Barker et al., Plant Mol. Biol. (1983) 2:325)including the mannopine synthase promoter region (P_(MAS))was coloned ina vector designated pVK232. After digestion of pVK232 with EcoRI, Eco13was inserted into the EcoRI site of pACYC184 to yield plasmid pCGN14.pCGN14 was digested with SphI and ClaI (respectively at position 21562and 20128 of the Barker et al. sequence, supra) to remove the P_(MAS)region which was inserted into pUC19 (Pharmacia, Inc.) which had beendigested with SphI and AccI to yield pCGN40. The P_(MAS) region includesa ClaI recognition site internally which is methylated, so as to resistdigestion.

pCGN40 was digested with EcoRV and EcoRI where the EcoRV site is in theT-DNA, while the EcoRI site is in the polylinker of pUC19 to provide afragment having the P_(MAS) region. pCGN451 containing the octopinesynthase cassette was digested with SmaI and EcoRI and the largerfragment isolated from which the octopine synthase 5′ region had beenremoved. The EcoRV-EcoRI P_(MAS) region was substituted into pCGN451 forthe octopine synthase 5′ region, where the transcriptional initiationand termination regions were separated by a polylinker to providepCGN46.

To introduce the plasmid pCGN809 onto the wide host range T-DNA binaryvector pCGN587, pCGN809 was transformed into an E. coli polA1 mutantcontaining pCGN587. The two plasmids pCGN587 and pCGN809 share tworegions of homology where recombination can occur: at the ocs 3′ regionsof the APHII gene and the γ-interferon gene, and at the pUC origins ofthe two plasmids, recombination at either site results in a plasmidcontaining both the γ-interferon gene and the APHII gene as intactexpression units. In the polA1 mutant, the pCGN809 plasmid, which has apUC origin of replication, can only survive by integration into thepCGN587 plasmid, which has a wide host range replication system. Sincethe pCGN809 construct has ampicillin resistance, the chimeric plasmidpCGN810 can be selected. The transformed E. coli host was grown in anutrient medium containing 100 μg/ml ampicillin and surviving clonesisolated. Plasmid pCGN810 was then mated into A. tumefaciens C58 (Watsonet al., J. Bacteriol. (1974) 123:255) by the method of Ditta et al.,Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (1978) 77:7347. pCGN810 was also mated intoA. tumefaciens K61, which contains a disarmed Ti-plasmid, as compared toC58 which has the genetic capability for nopaline expression, and is anarmed Ti-plasmid. The transformed Agrobacterium was selected withcarbenicillin (50 μg/ml) and streptomycin (150 μg/ml) at 30° C. for twoto three successive streak outs. After growth under selection, DNA wasisolated and restricted with BamHI and EcoRI and verified by probehybridization. The cloned pCGN808 was used as the nick-translated probeand confirmed the presence of a 565 bp γ-interferon fragment in both theexpression vector pCGN46 and the T-DNA plasmid pCGN587 in armed anddisarmed Agrobacterium.

Four pCGN810 constructs in both C58 and K61 were cocultivated withNicotiana tabacum xanthii protoplasts and clumps of transformed cellswhich were selected in 100 μg/ml kanamycin were transferred to solidmedia containing kanamycin (100 μg/ml) for further growth andregeneration into plants.

Tobacco leaf disks were cocultivated with pCGN810 in C58 and K61Agrobacterium strains and the disks transferred to selective media withkanamycin (100 μg/ml) for growth to callus.

Sterile tobacco plants were stem-stab inoculated with A. tumefaciens C58(pCGN810) resulting in the production of gall tissue which was excisedand transferred onto solid media containing kanamycin (100 μg/ml). Afterconsiderable callus proliferation, most of the gall-induced callusmaterial was harvested for mRNA and protein analysis. A small portion ofthe gall-callus material started to shoot on the kanamycin mediumwithout hormones. Once transferred to shooting media, the shootdevelopment looked normal for most of the plantlets, though some wereteratoma-like. The plantlets were transferred to rooting mediumcontaining kanamycin (100 μg/ml) and most of the morphology normalplantlets rooted.

The rest of the gall-induced callus material was pooled and used forpreliminary expression analysis for γ-interferon as compared withcontrol callus (plant cells transformed with A. tumefaciensC58(pCGN587). After extraction of the plant material andimmunoprecipitation with antisera against γ-interferon, the extract waselectrophoresed on 15% SDS-PAGE, electroblotted to nitrocellulose andblocked with γ-interferon antisera. Radioactively labeled S. aureusprotein A was hybridized to the filter, so as to bind to any immunecomplexes which had formed. In the transformed plant tissue (A.tumefaciens C58 (pCGN810)), a visible band ran at the same size as thepositive control γ-interferon samples.

Analysis of the mRNA obtained after an oligo-dT prep of total RNA wasperformed using nick-translated isolated gene fragments to the Tn5kanamycin gene (in pCGN587) and the γ-interferon fragment (in pCGN808).The Northern data showed a message in both pCGN587 and pCGN810 mRNApreps which hybridize to the kanamycin fragment. Only the transformedpCGN810 sample, hybridized to the γ-interferon gene probe showing twomRNA species, each terminating in a different sized noncoding3′-sequence.

Samples were prepared and bioassayed for murine γ-interferon. Thesamples were prepared as follows: To frozen tobacco tissue from tissueculture (1.6 or 1.0 g) ground in liquid nitrogen was added 5 or 2.5 ml,respectively, extraction buffer (1M NaCl, 25 mg/ml BSA, 10 mM DTT, 10 mMcysteine, 20 mM NaPO₄, pH 7.4) and grinding continued until the mixturewas liquid. The liquid was then centrifuged twice at 16 K rpm for 20min, transferring the liquid to a fresh tube after the first separation.The sample was then diluted to 5 ml and 0.5 ml control pore glass beads(CPG) (washed and autoclaved) were added and the mixture agitated at 4°C. for 4 hr. The mixture was then loaded onto a silane treated Pasteurpipette column, the column washed with 3 ml 20 mM NaPO₄, 1M NaCl and theproduct eluted with 5 ml 1M NaCl, 30% ethylene glycol. The materialeluted from the column was then dialyzed overnight against 20 mM NaPO₄,1M NaCl. Dialysis buffer was changed once at 3 hr. The dialysed samplewas concentrated with a Millipore immersible-CX 10,000 ultrafilter toless than about 1ml and then a series of dilutions with BSA buffer (1MNaCl, 20 mM NaPO₄, pH 7.4, 25 mg/ml BSA) performed. Comparison sampleswere made from transformed and untransformed tobacco, where noγ-interferon gene was introduced, where the tissue was or was notsupplemented with γ-interferon. The following table indicates theresults.

TABLE Tissue¹ Dilution² γ-IFN activity³ UT A 0 9 1 9 2 9 3 9 UT B 0 7411 188 2 15 3 9 T A 0 9 1 9 2 9 3 9 T B 0 9191 1 9191 2 1042 3 261 T-γIFN0 197 1 41 2 9 3 9 ¹UT — untransformed tobacco tissue T — tobacco tissuetransformed with foreign DNA T-γIFN — tobacco tissue transformed withthe murine γ-IFN gene A — no murine γ-IFN added B — 5 μg γ-IFN added to5 ml of sample prior to purification treatment ²0 = 0.5; 1 = 10⁻¹; 2 =10⁻²; 3 = 10⁻³ ³Assay procedure is described in Yip et al., Proc. Natl.Acad. Sci. USA (1982) 79:1820-1824.

The above results demonstrate that one can produce physiologicallyactive mammalian proteins in plant cells. Stable messages are producedby transcription of the mammalian gene integrated into the plant genome,which message can then be translated into the mammalian product, so asto provide physiologically active proteins. The mammalian proteins canbe readily isolated free of deleterious contaminants, such as oncogenicDNA, exotoxins, and the like. In addition, the products can be processedto provide for a mature product having the same or substantially thesame structure and composition as the naturally-occurring peptideproduct.

Although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail byway of illustration and example for purposes of clarity ofunderstanding, it will be obvious that certain changes and modificationsmay be practiced within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. Plant matter comprising dicotyledonous plantcells that express a mammalian peptide.
 2. The plant matter according toclaim 1, wherein said dicotyledonous plant cells are seed cells.
 3. Theplant matter according to claim 1, wherein said dicotyledonous plantcells are rapeseed cells.
 4. The plant matter according to claim 1,wherein said mammalian peptide is a mature mammalian peptide.
 5. Theplant matter according to claim 1, wherein said dicotyledonous plantcells are tobacco plant cells.
 6. The plant matter according to claim 1,wherein said mammalian peptide is an interferon.
 7. Dicotyledonous plantcells comprising a first expression cassette, said first expressioncassette comprises operatively linked components in the direction oftranscription (1) a first transcriptional and translational initiationregion functional in said dicotyledonous plant cells, (2) a firststructural gene coding for a mammalian peptide, and (3) a firsttermination region, whereby said dicotyledonous plant cells express saidfirst structural gene.
 8. The dicotyledonous plant cells according toclaim 7, wherein said dicotyledonous plant cells are tobacco plantcells.
 9. The dicotyledonous plant cells according to claim 7, whereinsaid dicotyledonous plant cells are seed cells.
 10. The dicotyledonousplant cells according to claim 7, wherein said dicotyledonous plantcells are rapeseed cells.
 11. The dicotyledonous plant cells accordingto claim 7, wherein said first expression cassette further comprises (4)a T-DNA boundary.
 12. The dicotyledonous plant cells according to claim7, wherein said first transcriptional and translational initiationregion is inducible.
 13. The dicotyledonous plant cells according toclaim 7, wherein said mammalian peptide is an interferon.